The move by President Uhuru Kenyatta to personally lead the war against drugs is bold, unprecedented and laudable.
It is an open secret that the Kenyan Coast is staring at a lost generation of youth courtesy of heartless drug barons.
The region has for decades been desperately crying for a saviour; in vain. Then came Uhuru.
Anybody who has been to the coast in recent years can bear witness that the situation has improved since the president first ordered authorities to arrest drug barons and destroy drug dens in the region in August 2015.
The order to arrest the drug dealers came just after Uhuru led in the destruction of a ship carrying drugs.
Hundreds of drug dens in Mombasa Old Town, Kisauni and Likoni were destroyed by law enforcers aided by residents while some of the notorious drug barons and peddlers were put behind bars.
Some of the addicted youths, locally known as mateja, were in the process rehabilitated and offered capital to start small businesses.
But there was still more to be done. Kenyans direly wanted to see a war targeting drug barons, not users and peddlers.
That explains exactly why the extradition of the Akasha brothers and two accomplices to face drug trafficking charges in US this week is a critical landmark in the fight against a menace that has rendered thousands of youths unproductive.
It is more heartening that the president has vowed not to stop the hunt for the big fish, some of whom are in politics. Targeting the drug barons is the surest way of killing the supply chain from the top.
It is the only sure way to curb easy access to drugs such as heroin, crack cocaine that have reduced hundreds of youths to zombies.
Statistics point that at least 10,000 youths in the Coastal region are addicted to hard drugs. For a region dogged by the so-called historical injustices, drugs are the real Achilles heel as the generation meant to right the wrongs is fast hurtling to self-destruction.
While one can authoritatively conclude that no other government has displayed greater grit in fighting the drugs menace like Uhuru’s, it is incumbent upon the coastal community to troop behind the head of state and save the region’s souls.